YOGOMO - "You Only Go On a Mission Once"

Concrete corn field in Dublin

Jumping the "zanja"

Hello everyone!

This week was kinda tough haha. Opposition in all things! Breakdown of the week: everyone is too busy, accidental donations, skunk chasings, concrete corn visits, interviews!

M&S- rumor has it her husband is not a fan of the church. At all. We saw them briefly this week just in a quick stop by visit. They said they're super busy now with a few upcoming trips and want to have another lesson when they're back towards the end of the month. So I guess we'll just be patient until we can talk to them about their concerns. 

S&R- we got there for the lesson this week and she wasn't home. She's "super busy with work until June." And said she'll come to church if she can. So we're still figuring out what to do with them.. we think something must've happened because they were on fire. Working with the ward on keeping them involved and keeping contact. We will continue to try to meet with them and see what's up without being too pushy. Sigh. 

R.- service again! She's doing well. Says she'll want to start taking the lessons again in a few weeks. She said she recognizes that she will have reading assignments and will be expected to do stuff. Yay slow progression! She was at church on Sunday and loved it. People acted like she was a less active that came back to church, which basically is what she is haha. 

Basically the only sit down lessons were people who seemed nice but just sat us down to tell us that our church is actually a cult... So that's always fun? Lots of tracting and grumpy people.

With all the downer stuff aside, we still had fun! With transfers coming up we decided to make the last week and a half of the transfer the best of our missions. Our goal is to just go crazy missionary mode and not be afraid of anything. Our motto is "YOGOMO" You Only Go On a Mission Once. If there's someone way down the street and we're about to get in the car we look at each other and say "yogomo?" then chase them down. It's been pretty fun and we haven't freaked too many people out. I'll share some of the fun and funny and happy things. 

We were knocking doors on Thursday and had just a few minutes before we needed to head out. We knocked on this weeeeird looking house. The door didn't have a doorknob so we were like what the heck?? We left but as we were walking down the driveway a guy opened the garage and talked to us. We talked for a minute and I was super confused about what he was saying. I didn't know what to do so I asked if we could say a prayer with him before we go (as a hint that we're leaving now haha). He said please so we did. After we said Amen he asked, "can I say a prayer for you?" We were like "sure!!" Then next thing we know he SHOOTS his hands out and puts one on each of our heads and basically gives us a blessing? Idk it was weird. Then he asked if we would accept a gift and we said um maybe? He went in and got us each a silver dollar and said "it's free, just like God's love!" So he was cool I guess?!

Last week we called this former in the area book. We called said we want to meet her, blah, blah and she said she was moving. We asked if we could help and she said yes! We showed up Friday to help and 20ish year old her son said she wanted us to start in the basement. We were like uh okay! So we went down and asked okay now what? He said one sec and ran upstairs to ask his mom. He played middle man for a bit while we figured out what to do. We did exactly what he said she asked us to do and took a car load of stuff to goodwill. He said that was all they needed help with. About 5 mins after we drop it off she calls us and says we brought the wrong stuff.. she went and found some of it she needed but seemed pretty annoyed that we took the wrong stuff. We apologized (even though we felt like she should've been down there telling us what to do??) and texted her again later that night to see if everything was good. She said yeah and we said if she needs any more help to let her know. She responded that we could go back again the next morning and help more. So we did and we actually met her! And she actually told us exactly what to do haha. And she appreciated us so that's good. 

Saturday mid day our area book planner app broke. No missionaries in the whole world could even open the app. So we were stuck plan-less (basically a nightmare come true hah). We had a bunch of names in but couldn't remember who and didn't know much about them. So we decided to pray and follow the spirit for a street to knock. We picked a few places but when we got there we felt like it was not the right place. Long story short, following the spirit takes a lot of miles . We ended up knocking this street we've been working on. We were about to walk down a kinda lit suuuper long driveway when we saw something move. Thought it was a cat or squirrel or something. Then we saw another.. it was black and white.. a skunk! There were at least 2. When we saw the second one it starting running toward us. You better believe we booked it out of there REAL QUICK. This was the night we got chased by a skunk. I guess the spirit wanted us to have a fun experience?

We had interviews this week! I told President about the cycle I feel like I've been stuck in for my whole mission. It begins with having no people you're working with. Then you work really hard and find new people. Then those people start to progress. Then they drop you. Then you're back at the beginning. This has happened SO MANY times to me and I needed suggestions to get out of it. He said that it's not me that will get me out of it. It's the Lord! I need to do things that will allow Him to let me out of the cycle. But until then, patience! And enduring! Yay my favorite things. But really interviews were awesome I love President. 

There's an awesome family in the ward that had us over for dinner and told us about some random places in Ohio. One was close by! So we got permission and went to the concrete corn field (see picture). Some farmer guy had farmed a ton of corn there and donated the land or something to the city? Not sure. But this is his memorial. 

Transfer next is NEXT WEEK! How? Not sure. This transfer went by in a jiffy. Let's be real, my whole mission has gone by way too fast. We're really scared about what's going to happen. When we were at the mission home waiting for interviews President made a few comments. When I went in for my interview I told sister Flora that I'd miss her. When we were in his office he said "get used to it." How awful is that!? I won't be emailing until Wednesday next week when I have the news so wish us luck!! We both want to stay here in Powell for at least another transfer :( 

Hope everyone had a good week! Talk to you in a while.

Love, Sister Barnes